


creatures of a brief season

by Hinn_Raven



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - His Dark Materials Fusion, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-11-02 14:48:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10946727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hinn_Raven/pseuds/Hinn_Raven
Summary: Everyone, no matter who they are, has an animal companion who reflects their soul.Tucker, Wash, Tex, and Kimball have observed some interesting things about the daemons of their friends and companions.





	1. Part I – Agnieszka

**Author's Note:**

> idk man I was reading daemon AUs, and I remembered that there isn't one of these things for RvB. So I wrote one. Short, sweet, to the point, I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> Special thanks to Strudelgit, who beta'd this for me, Renaroo, who provided incredibly useful animal-insight, and a-taller-tale, who was an excellent bouncer of ideas.

Agnieszka is a rabbit. Tucker doesn’t have a problem with that; when she settled when they were kids, it felt right.

Sure, it isn’t badass or anything, but she’s fast enough to keep up with him and her fur is soft and she can sit on his shoulder or curl up in his helmet, and that’s good enough for him.

He’s a lover, not a fighter, after all.

He calls her “Aggie”. She called him “Vern”, until he joined the army, when she switched to Tucker because it sounded older. He missed it, sometimes, but it was better this way. It was hard enough to be taken seriously with a bunny for a soul anyways.

Blue base is in the middle of nowhere, and it’s pretty lonely sometimes, just shooting shit with Church and Caboose.

At first, Tucker was a little bit nervous, after all, daemons that took the form of animals that usually eat rabbits? Doesn’t make great first impressions, that’s all Tucker’s gonna say on the subject. But as he gets to know Church and Caboose more, any kind of concern about the two faded away. Church’s daemon isn’t a cat because he’s gonna kick Tucker’s ass. She’s was a cat because Church is a testy jackass who wants attention but only when he’s in the mood. And Caboose? Well, it takes approximately three minutes after meeting Caboose to figure out why he’s got a dopey gigantic fucking bear hound. Aggie’s jumping over and running circles around the two without a care in no time, despite Mnemosyne always baring her teeth and claws in irritation, and the fact that three Aggies could fit in Luna’s giant, slobbery mouth.

Tucker pretends he doesn’t know what it means, when the three of their daemons are always touching each other. That Mnemosyne is always curling up against Luna’s giant stomach to sleep when they’re resting. Or the way Syna and Aggie butt heads and race around the base, always close enough not to strain their bonds.

For the Reds, Grif has a giant, pig like creature, which Tucker would later discover is a warthog. Nervous, twitchy Simmons has a ferret, and it doesn’t escape Tucker’s notice that their daemons are almost always touching, no matter what their owners are saying.

Sarge’s daemon is an old thing, so covered in scars that Tucker could barely tell it had been a dog, once. It limps and howls and snaps at whatever comes  near it, but over time, he learns that in a fight there was no other daemon Tucker would rather have watching Aggie’s back. The old bitch isn’t afraid to break every rule in the book to protect all of the other daemons, even being willing to bite _humans_ , not just daemons, and if she bats Aggie with a paw so that she turns somersaults sometimes when she’s irritated at Aggie’s innuendos… well, Tucker can’t really hold it against her, or the old man.

Donut’s daemon is a goose. Tucker fucking laughs until his side ached at first, until the first time capture the flag happens, and he sees the kind of damage those wings could do.

Lopez doesn’t have a daemon, of course, but one lazy day, Sarge makes him a little robot companion that follows Lopez around like one. Lopez keeps the thing, so Tucker figures he likes it. He calls it Daemonion. They all call it “Onion”, and Lopez is annoyed.

Tex, when she appears, is followed by a silent but beautiful black panther she calls Magnus. Most of the Freelancers, Tucker learns from Church, had predator daemons. Only the biggest and strongest for the best soldiers, after all.

Tucker wonders if the Freelancers were so good, why so many of them were dead. It had been a long time since Tex had mentioned one who was still alive, after all.

When Wyoming starts taking shots at them, the first thing Tucker sees was his daemon, a sleek white tiger, ridiculously obtrusive for a sniper, but just the right size to be able to take on Magnus. And easily able to eat Aggie in a single bite. Tucker runs and fights and goes on crazy adventures and manages to keep Aggie away from that tiger, and Tex keeps him away from Wyoming, and he stumbles forwards, always surviving.

Aggie picks up scars, and Tucker hates it. Hates that her gorgeous dark fur is marred now, that his stupid decision to join the army is hurting her, making her more and more like Church’s scraggly and scarred cat by the day.

Tucker gets a sword, and Aggie’s delighted, making Star Wars jokes and racing between his feet in figure eights, laughing about all the chicks he’ll be able to pick up now.

And then Crunchbite happens, and one morning Tucker wakes up and everything hurts and Aggie is crying and doesn’t stray more than an inch away from him but she won’t tell him why.

When Junior’s born, he has a daemon too. Tucker isn’t sure if normal aliens have daemons, but Junior sure does. Newborn, it shifts constantly, alternating between the familiar animals Aggie used to favor as a kid and various alien creatures that Tucker’s never seen in his life. Even the largest form is still tiny, and Aggie takes her job seriously, forcing the baby daemon into appropriate forms to be groomed, her tongue sticking out as she carefully tries to fix the new-baby-fur.

“What are you going to name him?” Tucker asks, blearily looking at his own kid. It’s only right, after all, that he names Junior, and she name the daemon.

“Alasdair,” she says seriously. Content at the state of Alasdair’s fur, she moves towards Junior, curling up against his side. Tucker lets out a shaky breath. Aggie had never touched another person before, not that he could remember. But he knows it wasn’t unusual, for a kid’s parent’s daemon to touch the kid, especially when they were so young.

“Do you think we’re going to be good parents?” Tucker asks, reaching out and touching Aggie’s fur, still soft and silky beneath his fingers despite all the shit they’ve been through.

“Damn straight we are,” she says, her ears twitching. “And our kids are gonna be _awesome_.”

Way too soon, Tucker gets to watch as Tex kidnaps Junior and drag him onto that fucking ship. Magnus carrying Alasdair’s tiny, ever-changing form gently between his terrifyingly sharp teeth, Alasdair and Junior both crying all the while.

Tucker and Aggie scream after them, but it doesn’t change anything.

Tucker kills Wyoming and watched the fucking tiger daemon turn to Dust in front of his eyes, but it doesn’t bring Junior back, it doesn’t change Tex choosing to try to sacrifice his kid to save the world, doesn’t change Sarge blowing up the ship with his kid _still in it_ , doesn’t change the fact that Tucker is a _father_ now, and he doesn’t know how to handle that, that he’s barely even had time to take that into account before it’s ripped away from him.

Tucker’s heart almost stops when he finally gets a message from the Sanghelli embassy. Junior’s okay, and that he needed to leave _right away_ to go be an ambassador with the aliens with him, and even Aggie barely took the time to nuzzle Luna and Mnem goodbye, because their kid needs them.

Tucker doesn’t say goodbye to Church.

He regrets that, later. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Meanings and Explanations**
> 
> Agnieszka: Tucker’s a lover, not a fighter, and Aggie reflects that. Also “fuck like rabbits”, is probably her catch phrase. Her name is a Polish variation of “Agnes”, which means chaste, because I think I’m funny.
> 
> Luna: Luna is a Russian bear dog, one of the largest dogs ever. They hunt bears, in case the name didn’t give it away. Her name comes from Caboose being a moon inhabitant, and me wanting to give Caboose’s daemon a simpler name. 
> 
> Mnemosyne: Siamese cats have non-retractable claws and very distinctive eyes (blue and cross-eyed) which I felt fit Church pretty damn well. The Mnemosyne River in Greek mythology is the river of memory, because let’s go for some irony here. 
> 
> Alasdair: Alasdair is the Gaelic variant of “Alexander”, which means “defender of humanity”. It seemed pretty fitting for Junior’s role as the alien messiah.


	2. Part II – Clementia

When Clementia goes through the procedure when they join Freelancer, she comes out with soft, beautiful grey fur, sharp teeth, and powerful claws, and about six times larger than she’d been before.

She’d been a cat before Freelancer, but Wash is a soldier. He’s not like Connie, who could have her little chameleon because of the nature of her job. He needs a large daemon. Aggressive. A real predator. Most of the other Freelancers undergo the procedure. Wash is no different.

Clementia turning snowy white when Wash is implanted with Epsilon, however, is something no one’s ever seen before.

They keep them separated, when he’s Section 12—not enough to fully pull them apart and sever them, but enough that every second is agony. His memories of that time are mostly screaming and pressing himself against the walls closest to her, trying to lessen the strain on their bond, even by those precious half centimeters. They _touch her_ , he can feel it, can feel their interest in those abnormalities, in the connection between Epsilon and Clem, and Wash beats the doors with his fists until the floor is slick with blood and the nurses come in to sedate him.

When they tell him they want him to be Recovery One, that he can help them, he agrees in a heartbeat, because if they need him to be Recovery One, they will let him have Clem back.

He buries his face in her fur, her precious, soft fur, now so, so pale, and breathes without pain for the first time in ages.

They offer him another AI, and Wash and Clem both snarl their refusal. His head is his and his alone, their bond is for the two of them. There is no room for another.

They share those terrible memories that Epsilon has left, of Allison and her beautiful black cat daemon, of Alpha, of Tex. Neither of them will share those with anyone.

The Counselor sends them out into the field, and Wash sets to work, Clem at his side, biting him gently when he needs grounding, when the memories threaten to overwhelm him. It helps, not being alone anymore.

When Wash gets to York’s body, there’s no sign of the clever golden monkey always at his side, only the lock picks, now scattered on the ground, that she used to carry for him. But Delta is still there, and that’s the only part that Command cared about anyways, so Wash doesn’t even try to remember her name as he sets the bomb and ran.

The Meta has no daemon, and Wash doesn’t know when that had happened. There is no sign of Maine’s gigantic bear, who had once sidled up to Clementia and curled against her until Clem had let out her barking laugh. He tries to think of when he had last seen her, but he can’t even remember her name.

Wash shoots South and refuses to watch as the lion which had left clawmarks on Clementia’s back to match the bullet South had left him with fades to Dust, joining its twin.

Wash had never known the name of Tex’s black panther. He was all powerful lean muscle, lurking behind her at all times, baring his teeth at the slightest provocation, as distant as she was.

When he fights Texas in the snow, there is no daemon in sight. AI don’t have them.

* * *

Kai is the first one of the sim troopers that Wash meets, and it’s only fitting that her daemon is a parrot: loud and obnoxious and colorful, swirling over Clementia’s head, spitting insults just like his human.

Caboose has an enormous dog with large teeth, even bigger then Clem, but Caboose referrs to her like puppy. “Her name is Luna,” Caboose says proudly. “She is my best not-Church friend!”

She bares her teeth and wags her tail. “Hello,” she says politely, and Wash blinks in surprise at being addressed so directly. It’s a breach in so many traditions. “It is nice to meet you.”

Luna, Wash learns, is a talkative creature like her human, but she’s softer-spoken. She translates for Caboose often, and tries to help him focus when she can. In a fight, she’s dangerous, snarling and growling and leaping through the air to pounce at whatever her target is.

Church has a daemon, a slight and scrappy Siamese cat, which throws Wash off the scent for a while. Wash wonders how much effort it had taken the Director, to give Alpha and Beta daemons of their own, so perfect that no one can tell.

The daemon’s name is Mnemosyne, and Wash doesn’t know Greek that well, but he knows the root of memory when he hears it.

 _Memory is the key_.

Alpha and Epsilon.

It always comes back to them, didn’t it?

Alpha dies, and Wash lives, and then he’s pulled apart from Clem again.

Prison is hell, just like Section 12 had been.

At least no one touches Clementia there, and she’s closer.

But she’s not _there_ , and Wash has gotten accustomed to be able to talk to someone, to have the pressure of something soft and warm against his leg as he walks, the knowledge that _someone_ is not about to leave him behind. If he behaves, he gets half an hour visiting her once a week.

Wash is bad at behaving.

When he finds a way out, a way to Epsilon, a way to freedom, Clem is at his side in a moment, half feral and eyes so wide he can see the full circles of her irises.

“We’re not going back there,” she tells him, her voice shaking. “Never again. They can’t take you away again.”

Wash can’t wrap his arms around her this time, not with the Meta right there, but he agrees with her fervently. They’re going to bring back Epsilon. They’re never going back to prison.

He shoots Donut. He kidnaps Doc and his snake daemon. He kills aliens in the desert. He finds CT’s helmet and he can hear Clem cry out softly, mourning their old friend.

The Meta tries to kill him, and he falls to the ground, bleeding out. Clem curls up beside him, her breathing slow and agonized.

And then the Reds and Blues take him home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Meanings and Explanations:**
> 
> Clementia: Clementia is the Roman goddess of redemption and salvation, which seemed to fit Wash’s arc. It did pain me to give Wash a non-cat animal, but I really wanted to emphasize Wash’s pack-like nature. 
> 
> South and North have lions because of Becky – “Males are more solitary and would reflect South’s want for independence and lionesses are big on family groups, which could reflect North’s overbearingness.” 
> 
> Maine has a bear because the Meta is described as having the strength of ten bears. And again, I think I’m funny.


	3. Part III – Magnus

“What’s his name?”

Connie is the first Freelancer to seek out Texas on her own free will. Tex looks up, confused, as she wracks her mind, trying to think of the name for the black panther standing at her side, warily eying the chameleon in Connecticut’s arms.

He doesn’t have a name.

Why would he need one? He never speaks. He’s a weapon like her. He kills the daemons of their enemies with the same brutal efficiency that defines Tex.

Their bond is long, because it had to be, because otherwise he’d give away her position when she uses her active camouflage. There’s no helping it, despite the uncomfortable tightness in her chest every time they push their bond, stretching it so thin she feels like it might snap.

When she comes back from missions like that, he curls around her feet. It’s the only way they showed affection.

“I… I don’t remember,” Tex says, surprised. “I guess we forgot it after the accident.” The accident right before she joined Freelancer is the reason behind most of the holes in her memory, the Counselor tells her. But she thought that the name of her daemon should be… there. It seems important.

“Well, that sounds like a story,” York says. His black monkey with its golden mane is sitting on his helmet, head tilted to one side.

Tex frowns. “Wasn’t talking to _you_.”

York presses a hand against his chest. “Why, you wound me Tex!”

“And me,” the monkey says, her voice light and lyrical. She leaps off York’s head and crawls towards the panther. “I’m Bronx,” she introduces herself, holding out her hand, as if expecting him to shake it.

“Ignore her,” the chameleon says, not moving from Connie’s arms. “She’s a pain.”

“I’m being _friendly_ , Khukuri,” the monkey says reproachfully. 

Tex frowns. “I thought we were supposed to have…”

“Predators?” York asks, nudging Connie. “Well that’s not very good for us infiltration specialists, is it? A big beastie like your buddy there kind of tends to give away our positions.”

“I manage,” Tex says.

“Yeah, your range must be amazing,” York laughs. “But the rest of us mere mortals? Less fun.”

Tex nods thoughtfully.

“If you don’t remember, that’s okay,” Connie says. “I mean, it’s not like Bronx is really her name.” She tilts her head towards the monkey, who’s still trying to engage the panther playfully.

“Hey, it’s real if she says it’s real!” York says, laughing again. “But she does have a point, Tex. You can choose his name. Or he can. Either one really.”

Tex rolls her eyes, pushing away from the wall, intending to escape those two and their nosiness. “It doesn’t matter,” she said.

Her daemon looks up at her instead of following her. She makes a face at him behind her helmet, safe in the knowledge the others can’t see. 

“You want a name, don’t you?”

He nods, expectantly.

“… Magnus,” she finally says.

York snorts. “Did you just name him after the gun?”

“You want to make something of it?”

What else would she name him? He’s a weapon like her, after all.

She doesn’t dwell that most of her memories were of weapons, of fighting, of battles, of tactics, of how to maintain her armor and weapons, with a few precious other things, like those fragile memories of her old boyfriend, or the feeling of freedom on a motorcycle.

“Nothing at all,” Connie says. “Nice to meet you, Magnus.”

Magnus nods, still not speaking.

Khukuri hisses in a friendly manner, nodding back.

Months later, Magnus will snap Khukuri’s neck with his powerful jaws, just moments before Tex buries an axe in Connie’s chest, and neither of them hesitate.

Regret would come later, in the form of a video, of a reminder.

 _Your friend, Connie_.

Connie and Khukuri have left them the truth, left them the documents and files they need to understand. Beta, the Shadow, and a panther daemon that had appeared the moment they’d put her in a body of her own.

“We’ll kill them,” Magnus growls.

It’s the first time either of them had heard him speak.

Tex grabs York, Bronx, and Delta, and they run. Tex rips Freelancer apart. Carolina and her leopard go off the cliff. She leaves Alpha behind. She runs.

Magnus stays at her side the whole time.

* * *

 

(When York dies, Tex kneels over the body. Bronx is already fading away, sprawled across York’s leg.

“That’s what makes us human, Tex,” Delta says to her. The holograph changes, and the breath in her chest catches as she spots a small, green monkey cling to Delta’s leg.

“Among other things,” she says.

She leaves Delta and his new daemon to their death. It doesn’t matter to her if it was real or if Delta had just made it on a whim, a mourning for Bronx. None of it matters. He was human, like her. They’re _people_.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Meanings and Explanations:**
> 
> Magnus: A magnum is the most common weapon in RvB (it’s the pistol they usually carry when talking). It’s also the weapon Tex threatens Connie with in the initial portion of their confrontation, because I like some irony. He’s a panther because, well, giant black cat, a predator version of Allison’s black cat. 
> 
> Bronx: Capuchin monkeys are some of the most iconic monkeys in the world; they’re incredibly smart, known to be thieves, and are easily recognizable as those ones in old movies with those little music boxes. Bronx changed her name to match York when they joined the program. No one’s sure what her original name is. 
> 
> Khukuri: Khukuri is a chameleon to reflect Connie’s spying nature and the sneaky nature of her enhancement. A khukuri is a Nepalese knife, used in combat. And yes, it’s as fake of a name as Bronx. But they were subtler about it.


	4. Part IV – Euterpe

Kimball isn’t a witch, but sometimes she thinks it would be easier if she was. She had met a witch once, before the war, an elderly woman with a stork daemon who had told stories. Kimball’s grandmother had been a witch, which normally changed nothing, but she sometimes thinks it’s made things just a bit easier with Euterpe.

Euterpe had always loved flying forms, and when she settled as an eagle the day war was declared, neither of them had so much as blinked twice.

Eagles are good daemons for soldiers; there’s a long, honored history of them serving as scouts, and even as the daemons of leaders. There’s a reason so many countries over the millennia have put eagles on their standards.

Euterpe’s range is incredible for a non-witch, but they both prefer to stay close to each other if possible.

Most of the New Republic is not as prepared as Kimball and Euterpe. Their daemons are the daemons of civilians; cats and small dogs and rabbits and songbirds. Katie Jensen has a lizard that clings to the side of her helmet. John Andersmith has a placid cow named Edgar, of all things, following behind him at all times.

And then there’sFelix.

Felix has a fox named Apate; a small, clever thing. She doesn’t talk much, but she’s vicious in battle, killing daemons with an ease that Kimball loathes to be grateful for, but she is. Euterpe is good at it too—an eagle was prime for swooping down and attacking smaller daemons, but it makes them both sick to the stomach.

No one has ever seen Locus’s daemon.

Sometimes Kimball wonders if he truly _was_ a machine.

Felix swears otherwise, a hand on Apate’s head. “He had one. I knew it. Aesina. I’m—I’m sure she’s still around. Somewhere.”

The alternative is that he was severed. The idea is nauseating.

One day, when Kimball has almost given up hope, the Reds and Blues tumble from the sky.

Captain Grif has a warthog daemon. He won’t tell Kimball her name, muttering that it’s none of her business anyways. Simmons has a small ferret, that usually stays either in a pouch on the side of his leg installed exactly for that purpose, or perched on the head of Grif’s daemon. Her name is Bellatrix, and she’s jumpy and nervous like her human.

Tucker’s Agnieszka and Caboose’s Luna are inseparable, in the absence of Agent Washington’s daemon. Even when the captains are apart, their daemons aren’t whenever possible, Agnieszka perched on Luna’s head, giving her a better view of everything.

Agnieszka is the one to touch Euterpe, when they’re at the algae pool. Kimball exhales loudly, shocked by it, just like Euterpe is.

They both think about the blood on their hands, about how long it has been since someone had touched them.

Agnieszka presses her nose against Euterpe’s feathers. “It’s alright,” she says, softly. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”

Apate loves Agnieszka, chasing her around the base playfully, even as Felix and Tucker argue and spar all over base.

Euterpe starts to ride around on Luna’s head, sometimes.

And then they’re dead, killed by the Federal Army, and fire burns in Kimball’s veins.

* * *

Apate and Felix are severed.

This realization is harsh and cold, and Kimball stares at Felix with wide eyes.

_Soulless._

Felix had ripped Apate apart from him. Their bond is a weakness, after all, he mocks Kimball over the radios, even as Euterpe tries to fly away, to escape Apate’s snapping jaw. Apate and Felix had agreed to this, to this horror, to sever themselves to make them stronger.

Washington tells her that Locus’s daemon is a small spider, that he hides her under his armor, where she can be protected at all times.

Kimball thinks of all the times that Apate had chased Tucker’s small, gentle rabbit around the base, of all those friendly, playful nips, and shudders, realizing just how close they had all been to death that whole time.

* * *

Agent Carolina’s daemon is a leopard named Cornelius. He’s one of the most beautiful creatures Kimball has ever seen; sleek, rippling muscle beneath his spotted fur. He presses against Washington’s Clementia constantly, as if reassuring himself that she’s still there, still alive.

Clementia does the same back, despite their humans often standing far apart for their duties.

As the weeks wear on, Cornelius becomes a favored perch for Agnieszka, who chatters away, spouting off many of the same flirtatious lines that Kimball has heard Tucker use himself. She smiles and Euterpe laughs, before taking to the sky to scout for danger yet again.

One day, after a long, hard battle, Cornelius tracks down Euterpe and nuzzles his face into her feathers. Kimball nearly falls over in surprise at the easy affection offered between the daemons.

Sometimes Kimball envies the daemons, for their lack of fear and armor, which allow them the physical contact their humans deny themselves.

But she rests easier.

Souls do not lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Meanings and Explanations:**
> 
>  
> 
> Euterpe: The Muse of lyrical music, it only seemed fitting to give Kimball’s daemon a name tied to music, given the planet is called Chorus. I chose an eagle because of its warlike associations, particularly with Roman standards. 
> 
> Apate: I picked a fox for Felix purely to contrast with Tucker, and to emphasize the danger, stealth, and sneakiness. Plus it matches his color scheme. In Greek mythology, Apate is the goddess of deceit. A bit obvious I know, but I figure that no one is taking the time to google everyone’s daemon’s names in the middle of a civil war. 
> 
> Aesina: Spanish for murderess. I swear to god, I got it off a random daemon name generator, the fact that it worked so well is a pure coincidence. I’m not sure if it’s her real name, or if she changed it when Locus changed his. I guess that’s up for interpretation. And yes, she’s a spider, and no, they’re not separated. Their bond is completely intact. 
> 
> Cornelius: Tex’s panther is a black leopard, which Cornelius is a more typical leopard, emphasizing the parallels between the two. Also leopards are mostly solitary creatures, but they are notoriously protective of their family. Cornelius is named after Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a Roman general known for marching on his own city, in my attempt to parallel Carolina turning against her father.


End file.
